Assessment of key concepts that are relevant to international project management 

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Chapter 2 Assessment of key concepts that are relevant to international project management

Introduction

Understanding the appropriate key concepts is crucial to the study. This section examines some specific concepts related to international project management that are employed in this research. Literature that is relevant to the success of the project will also be addressed in the sense that it provides context and background for appreciation of the model to be proposed and evaluated in the ensuing chapters.

Assessment of key concepts

Dimensions of a project

A project may be defined in several different ways.
As far back as in 1983, Tuman defined a project as follows (in Pinto, 1986): ―A project is an organisation of people dedicated to a specific purpose or objective. Projects generally involve large, expensive, unique, or high risk undertakings which have to be completed by a certain date, for a certain amount of money, within some expected level of performance. At a minimum, all projects need to have well defined objectives and sufficient resources to carry out all the required tasks.‖ A project is a combination of human and nonhuman resources pulled together in a temporary organisation to achieve a specified purpose (Cleland & Kerzner, 1985).
Archibald (in Shtub, Bard & Globerson, 1994) stated in 1976 that a project is the entire process required to produce a new plant, new system, or other specified results.
PMBOK (2008) defines a project as « a temporary endeavour undertaken to create a unique product, service, or result ».
From the definitions above, the characteristics of a project can be summarised as follows:

• A project is a temporary, pre-planned endeavour with a beginning and an end
• A project has specific objectives that can be evaluated
• Every project is unique; all projects differ from each other
• A project needs different resources to achieve the desired deliverables

The differences between projects and products

Projects are different from products in many respects.
Products are what the organisation is in business to make, deliver or sell, as stated in its mission. They maybe manufactured goods or services. Products generate revenue and therefore deliver the purpose or benefit of the project‖ (Knipe, Waldt, Niekerk, Burger & Nell, 2002).
The products of a project may for example be a bridge, or a sports stadium. The deliverables of projects are products. The description that projects are a temporary endeavour does not mean that the products and services they produce are temporary (Michael and Marina, 2004). The products of projects are generally ongoing for long periods and do not necessarily have a definite ending point. Projects, as compared to products, have a definite ending because they are scheduled to be completed within a specific time period This may have implications where for example team members in international teams have different cultural context and time conception behaviour specifically pertaining to the product that the project is supposed to deliver.

Brief review of project management

Although there are many different definitions of project management (PM), most of them are similar in that they contain the same elements.
Levine (1986) states that project management can be defined as the ―planning, organising, directing, and controlling of resources for a specific time period to meet a specific set of one-time objectives‖.
« Project management is the application of knowledge, skills, tools and techniques to project activities in order to meet or exceed stakeholder needs and expectations from a project » (Duncan, 1996).
In their book, Harrison and Dennis (2004) define project management as ―the achievement of project objectives through people and involving the organization, planning and control of resources assigned to the project‖. The purpose of project management is achieved for the set project objectives in a risky environment.
According to the definition issued by the Project Management Institute, ―project management is the application of knowledge, skills, tools, and techniques to project activities to meet project requirements. Project management is accomplished through the appropriate application and integration of the 42 logically grouped project management processes comprising the 5 Process Groups (initiating, planning, executing, controlling, and closing)‖ (PMBOK 2008).
From these definitions, some common aspects of project management can be summarised:

• Effective management, including planning, controlling, organising and executing
• Meeting stakeholder requirements
• Project objective-orientated work
• The application of knowledge, skills, tools, techniques and methods

The body of project management knowledge and standards

PMBOK (2008) provides a framework of project management knowledge areas. Project management and practice are described in terms of their component processes. These processes have been organised into nine knowledge areas (Table 2.1). This table, and the following Table 2.2 are shown here for inter alia easy reference and to assess directly where cultural impact may occur; for example as part of the perform quality assurance activity under the Executing Process Group and Project Quality Management knowledge area as well part of the monitor and control risk activity under the Project Risk Management knowledge area.

• « Project integration management includes the processes and activities needed to identify, define, combine, unify, and coordinate the various processes and project activities within the project management process groups.
• Project scope management includes the processes required to ensure that the project includes all the work required, and only the work required, to complete the project
• Project time management includes the processes required to manage timely completion of the
• Project cost management includes the processes involved in estimating, budgeting, and controlling costs so that the project can be completed within the approved
• Project quality management describes the processes and activities of the performing organisation that determine quality polices, objectives, and responsibilities so that the project will satisfy the needs for which it was undertaken.
• Project human resource management includes the processes that organise, manage and lead the project
• Project communications management includes the processes required to ensure timely and appropriate generation, collection, distribution, storage, retrieval, and ultimate disposition of project
• Project risk management includes the processes of conducting risk management planning, identification, analysis, response planning, and monitoring and control on a
• Project procurement management includes the processes necessary to purchase or acquire products, services, or results needed from outside the project ‖

Table 2.1 shows that the IPMA (International Project Management Association) has developed the ICB (IPMA Competence Baseline), which is considered to be another global standard in project management (Pannenbäcker, Knofel & Communier, 2002).
The ICB contains basic terms, tasks, practices, skills, functions, management processes, methods, techniques and tools that are commonly used in project management, as well as advanced knowledge, where appropriate, of innovative and advanced practices used in more limited situations‖ (IPMA Certification Yearbook 2005). Cultural behaviour may again be considered important in for instance element 2.14, values appreciation in Table 2.2.

Evaluation of an international project

Clifford and Erik (2000) classify projects as domestic, overseas, foreign and global projects. They state that a domestic project is one performed in its native country, an overseas project is one executed in a foreign country for a native firm, a foreign project is executed in a foreign country for a foreign firm, and a global project is implemented in multiple counties. They categorise projects executed elsewhere than in the native country as international projects. Ling, Ibbs and Hoo (2006) also state that an international project is one located outside the country where the company headquarters is based.

Foreign business environment

A business environment is created by factors such as the economic, cultural, legal, regulatory, financial, natural, institutional system and technical factors of a host country. The business environment is a rapidly changing environment (Collyer & Warren, 2009). Every country has its own unique business environment characteristics. The variety of business environment across regions and countries is commonly accepted as a barrier to doing business (Commander, Svejnar & Tinn, 2008). In this research study, a business environment that is out of one‘s native country is considered as a foreign environment. It is a key challenge for managers to understand uncertainty in the business environment (Burt, 2006).

The characteristics of an international project management team

Teams are very common in our lives. We often encounter a basketball team, soccer team, study team and so on. At the highest conceptual level, a team can be defined as a collection of people who work together to achieve a common goal (Frame, 1999).
Michael and Marina (2004) state that a project team is ―a small number of people with complementary skills who are committed to a common purpose, performance, goals, and approach‖. In some projects, the project team can also include other interested entities, such as stakeholders, client representatives and environmentalists. The project manager is the team leader whose responsibilities are to use a series of team development skills to improve the team performance.

PART 1: BACKGROUND AND CONTEXT 
Chapter 1: Problems in managing international projects – contextualising the research 
1.1 Rationale for the research
1.2 Some problems in managing international projects
1.2.1 Problems encountered in international project management
1.2.1.1 Cultural differences
1.2.1.2 Political factors
1.2.1.3 Legal factors
1.2.1.4 Economic factors
1.3 Description of research problems
1.4 Research objectives
1.5 The contributions of this research
1.6 A brief introduction to the research methodology
1.7 The structure of the thesis
Chapter 2: Assessment of key concepts that are relevant to international project management 
2.1 Introduction
2.2 Assessment of key concepts
2.2.1 Dimensions of a project .
2.2.2 The differences between projects and products
2.2.3 Brief review of project management
2.2.4 The body of project management knowledge and standard
2.2.5 Evaluation of an international project
2.2.6 Foreign business environment.
2.2.7 The characteristics of an international project management team
2.2.8 Project success review
2.3 Critical project success factors review
2.4 Project success measurement review
2.4.1 Introduction.
2.4.2 The definition of project success criteria
2.4.3 The measures of project success
2.4.4 The findings from the literature review
2.5 Summary
PART 2: THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE CONCEPTUAL MODEL
Chapter 3: Literature review on international project management 
3.1 Introduction
3.2 A brief research review on constraint factors in international project managemen
3.3 Cultural difference in international project management
3.4 Conclusions
Chapter 4: Review of gaps in previous research on international projects 75
4.1 Introduction
4.2 Some conclusions from the literature review
4.3 Summary
Chapter 5: Conceptual model for international project management
5.1 Introduction
5.2 The identification of typical Chinese behaviours
5.3 The key activities affected by cultural differences in an internatinal project management process
5.4 Project management processes
5.5 The proposed solutions for overcoming cultural differences in international project management
5.6 A proposed conceptual model for managing cultural difference in international project management
5.7 Conclusions
PART 3: DATA ANALYSIS AND RESULTS
Chapter 6: Research methodology design 
6.1 Introduction
6.2 The questionnaire design
6.3 The survey process
6.4 Conclusions
Chapter 7: Date analysis and discussion of results 
7.1 Introduction to data analysis
7.2 Data analysis and results
7.3 Data analysis of additional survey
7.4 Conclusions
Chapter 8: Conclusions, limitations and recommedations for future research
8.1 Introduction
8.2 Conclusions
8.3 Contributions of the research
8.4 Some limitations of the study and recommendations for future research
REFERENCES 
APPENDIX
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